Kelli previously shared excellent advice on whether Businesses Should Pay Mommy Bloggers and just recently found out she was offering Blog Media Kits for bloggers. I asked Kelli to share more tips for bloggers seeking to work with businesses interested in blog outreach doing product reviews, giveaways and posts and explain why it is important for bloggers to offer a blog media kit.

Who Kelli is and what she does:

Kelli @ 3 Boys and a Dog is a top blogger in the mom blogging industry. She has worked with hundreds of brands and most recently was voted number 8 at Picket Fence Lifestyle blogs. With her blog at a PageRank of 4, over 5,200 Twitter followers, and many other social media achievements, Kelli is a top voice among product review bloggers.   As a blogger since 2008, Kelli has a fantastic feel of what businesses and PR companies want from bloggers and is excited about helping you gather your information in professional looking documents through Blog Print Media.

So, what makes you the best person to hire for this?

I sell ad space on my blog, but I also reach out to PR/Marketing companies on a regular basis.  I got so sick of writing the same info or doing the whole “copy & paste” thing into emails that I had to come up with a better solution.  I searched the internet and found that I needed a media kit.  Unfortunately, the people making them had such a backlog of clients wanting media kits that their prices were more than an average person like me could afford and it would be months before I could actually get one. The cheapest (and this was after months of searching) was 75 dollars per page! SEVENTY-FIVE DOLLARS PER PAGE (at approximately 16 pages)!? If I had $1200 to invest in a media kit, I probably wouldn’t need one. LOL!

My goal is to reach the mid-sized bloggers like me who are making a little here and a little there that want to up their game, but can’t afford those prices.

I realized that I had this new tricked-out computer with tons of programs and knew exactly what needed to be in my kit, so I began making them.  I also realized that my time must not as valuable as the other Media Kit Designers out there (Or I am just not as stingy… or it could be that the cost of living is much cheaper in Alabama) because I can do it for WAY less cost! I can make a 16 page Media Kit that also includes a matching Business Card Design AND Media Quick Sheet for $450. Plus, I have options for even smaller businesses.  The quick kit is my most popular product as it is as much info as can reasonably fit one a single page.

I am just a blogger, not a business… why would I need a media kit?

First and foremost, please do not call yourself “just a blogger”!  Bloggers have so much impact in the world now… you are a BLOGGER!  In a nutshell, if you are ready to take your blog to the next level you have to commit to a professional blog media kit!  Even the simple and easily email-able Quick Sheet is a great bet!

What type of info is included in the Blog Media Kit? The Marketing Terms Website answers this question much better than I can.

Media kits often contain information about rates, ad sizes and formats, targeting options, audience profiles, case studies, contact information, plus anything else that helps buyers make informed decisions. There are no static rules, and media kits vary greatly. However, they all share a common goal; to give prospective advertising buyers every reason and opportunity to make contact. –via Marketing Terms Website

I can’t tell you what you want in your kit, but I have a questionnaire that you will receive after I receive payment that is several pages long.  It asks for just about everything you can imagine.  I then compile the most relevant to include.  I know what information prospective advertisers want to see and will be sure that information gets in, but you may have something that you are proud of that you would like included.

Why is a professionally made kit better than something I throw together in Word?

It is all about branding and building your brand.  A professionally made media kit matches your blog or website 100% so that if someone sees it, they should be able to recognize it as yours.  Besides, not everyone has Word, so if you send a Word document through the email system, the person on the other end might not be able to open it.  I create a professional PDF document that has been shrunken to quickly zip through the email system and be able to be opened by all.  Let me ask you this… if you were looking to drop hard money on advertising, contacted five sites that all had approximately the same reader demographic and seemed to be the same size, and one of those five sent you a professional media kit and the others simply responded with a thrown together Word document that you couldn’t open or a few things in an email… who would you be more likely to trust with your dime? Yeah, me too… the Professional!

So, what if I don’t know all of my stats?

Honestly, if you want to be a professional blogger, you simply MUST know your stats and how to get them.  But, don’t worry… the process of building your media kit is pretty painless for you.   I know how to get the stats and demographics for pretty much every site out there, so I can certainly help you gather this information for your kit… at no extra cost!  Does that mean I will do everything for you?  NO! But, I will help you understand your stats and know how to find them.  If I have to do all of the legwork as opposed to just designing and compiling, then I am going to have to charge more.  If I have to do just a little legwork to find something you can’t, then I do it at no extra cost.

What do I do with a blog media kit?

You send it out!  When people contact you, you send them a media kit.  When you are contacting people… you send them a media kit!  You put a small excerpt in the header of your blog and encourage PR folks and ad agencies to contact you for the complete media kit.  Unfortunately, you don’t really want your entire kit out for the world to see.  Why?  Because your competition will use it to make themselves better!  You do, however, want a little (common knowledge) information out there for the prospective advertisers to find.  Plus, you want to build a relationship with those prospective advertisers and having them email you gives you that chance!

Can I see a portfolio of what you have already done?

Certainly!  I have a FlickR photostream that showcases several of my recent Media Quick Sheets and Business Card designs: http://www.flickr.com/photos/59432530@N06/

How will having a Blog Media Kit benefit my site?

If you are super small, it probably won’t benefit you, but if you already have people contacting you for your stats, prices, case studies, etc then you need one! As your site continues to grow, you will see more and more of a demand for advertising.  To make your site stand out above the millions of other blogs exactly like it, you have to be different.

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